[Hudlug] Semi-OT - Laptop advice, please
Anne Wilson
cannewilson at tiscali.co.uk
Thu Jun 23 18:01:20 BST 2005
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On Thursday 23 Jun 2005 16:35, Paul Brook wrote:
> On Thursday 23 June 2005 13:45, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > I've never had a laptop before, so I need some quick advice. I've been
> > told that I should remove the battery if I use it on mains. Is this
> > true of modern laptops?
>
> There are many myths about battery life, most of which are either
> inaccurate, or only apply to very old batties. For example old machines
> (> 7 years or so) use NiCad batteries which need a full discharge/charge
> cycles to avoid memory effects. With modern NiMH or lithium ion batteries
> this will actually damage the battery.
>
> Generally speaking if you keep the battery well changed you won't go far
> wrong. Modern batteries have integrated charging circuitry. They prefer
> being recharged immediately after use, and an continual topup trickle
> change between uses.
>
Thanks, Paul and Andy. I suspect that both the people who had batteries go
almost immediately had old-style batteries, although one of them was bought
new about 4-5 years ago. Nevertheless, I'm glad to hear that it doesn't
apply to new ones. The docs that come with the laptop say practically
nothing about battery care.
Unfortunately I do need to run windows on it, but in a few weeks I shall be
asking for help/advice about getting a dual-boot set up. At the moment I'm
thinking that I could re-partition and install linux, then use partimage on
it. Since, as I understand it, it does a bit-for-bit copy I presume the
windows side would restore as well. I haven't even activated it yet, but I
assume that restoring from partimage would get around any need for
reactivation. Sorry if this sounds ramblilng, but I haven't used windows
for years now, apart from when I'm helping sort out my daughters' boxes,
and XP is completely new to me. I'm not interested in running windows more
than I have to, but obviously it needs to be done as carefully and securely
as I can.
Anne
- --
Registered Linux User No.293302 (http://counter.li.org/)
Have you visited http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org yet? Mandrake at all levels
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